Lawsuits on guns and claims of selectman self porn

One of his clients is the woman who is suing the first selectman of Stonington, claiming he sent her a picture of his genitals.

Her lawsuit claims all kinds of lingering medical problems since she viewed the photo on her phone, including migraine headaches.

The problem for Camassar is that his client deleted the offensive photograph. So, evidence is missing.

Not that we could blame her for hitting the delete button. I would, too, if a picture of the privates of a middle-aged, heavyset town selectman suddenly appeared on my phone.

Another of Camassar's interesting clients is Scott Ennis, a New London bail bondsman whose license was revoked by the state, who says he started an organization, Disabled Americans for Firearms Rights, sometime last year and has enlisted more than 15,000 members nationwide.

He is the only active member and sole officer, though.

DAFR actually only became a legal entity, according to the Secretary of the State, on April 10, the same day Camassar made public a lawsuit, with DAFR and Ennis as plaintiffs, that seeks to declare Connecticut's tough new gun law unconstitutional.

The lawsuit specifically singles out things the gun law prohibits, like handle grips, folding stocks and high-capacity magazines, that it says will inhibit the ability of disabled people to exercise their rights to use guns.

I asked Ennis to explain how his disability affects his gun use.

He is a hemophiliac, which he says has led to bleeding-related injuries that make it difficult to bend his elbow and hold a gun. Because of problems with his joints, he moves at a slower pace and, therefore, he needs magazines with a high capacity, because he can't change them quickly enough otherwise.

We also had a chance to chat a bit about some of the other lawsuits that Ennis has been involved with, including one current action in which he is suing the owner of a Norwich apartment building, saying he fell in a common area that was not properly cleared of snow.

The law firm of Faulkner & Graves of New London is representing him in that lawsuit.

Another lawsuit, filed in New Britain, was brought in 2009 by a bail recovery agent who said Ennis, who then ran Easy Bail Bonds of New London, hired him to track down someone who had skipped out on bail and then never paid up.

A judgment against Ennis for $8,000 was made in that case, primarily because Ennis never responded in any way to the lawsuit. Court records indicate the money was never paid.

"It's a lawsuit I did not agree with," Ennis first said, when I asked about claims by the bail recovery agent.

He then blamed his health for the lack of response to the yearslong lawsuit. The court issued a capias, a court order to have a defendant taken into custody, in 2011.

"I was in the hospital a few times. I was extremely sickly and almost died twice," he said.

Other legal troubles Ennis has contended with in recent years included an action by the state that resulted in a June 2009 consent agreement in which his bail bond license was revoked.

The consent agreement, which noted the license had been suspended in 2008, when a fine was also imposed, said Ennis "failed to act in trustworthy or financially responsible manner" and did not return collateral someone put up for their bail "despite repeated attempts" to collect it.

When I asked Ennis about the consent order, he said that also occurred during a period of time when he was sick.

After our conversation, it occurred to me that being denied a high-powered assault rifle seems to be the least of his disability-related problems. And he can at least count himself lucky that he's not getting emails from his first selectman.